Our mental and emotional well-being demands that we take time occasionally to restore ourselves: to calm down, to reflect and to rest. Personal restoration is strongly linked to recovery. Means of self-restoration include interacting with nature (see also here), and conservation of personal resources. However: “Dense wooded areas may evoke fear and stress and require directed attention to avoid getting lost or tripping over.” After natural disasters, being safe at home is restorative.
Everyone sleeps. We can either lay down and sleep, or try to stay awake, in which case sleep will come. “Sleep is a biological necessity, and insufficient sleep and untreated sleep disorders are detrimental for health, well-being, and public safety.” “Sleep is an essential function that allows your body and mind to recharge, leaving you refreshed and alert when you wake up. Healthy sleep also helps the body remain healthy and stave off diseases. Without enough sleep, the brain cannot function properly, impairing your abilities to concentrate, think clearly, and process memories.” Sleeping is so essential that researchers have created academic journals called Sleep, Journal of Sleep Research, Sleep Health, Sleep Medicine, Sleep Epidemiology, Sleep Medicine Reviews, and Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
Sleep deprivation is unhealthy. “. . . sleep deprivation studies confirm the relationship between inadequate sleep and a wide range of disorders, such as hypertension, obesity and type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, impaired immune functioning, and more.” “. . . much of Western society’s apathy towards sleep can be accounted for by science’s failure to explain the evolutionary purpose of sleep or why we need it. This in turn has led to a scenario in which neglecting sleep has become the norm, to the point that the WHO has declared that there is a sleep deficiency epidemic in industrialized countries.”
Among the benefits of adequate sleeping are:
- Reduced stress and anxiety (anxiety interferes with sleep);
- Improved mood;
- Expanded learning capacity;
- Improved emotion regulation;
- Improved energy conservation (see also here);
- Improved growth and healing (growth hormone);
- Improved judgment and decision making;
- Decreased blood pressure;
- Chronic pain relief;
- Improved immune health;
- Improved cardiovascular health;
- Improved critical thinking;
- Increased emotional brain function, including empathy and compassion;
- Enhanced problem-solving skills;
- Enhanced creativity;
- Improved concentration;
- Enhanced thinking;
- Improved memory formation and retention.
Real
True Narratives
Technical and Analytical Readings
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Novels:
- Mike McCormack, Solar Bones: A Novel (Soho Press, 2018): “Where modernism took a world that appeared to be whole and showed it to be broken, ‘Solar Bones’ takes a world that can’t stop talking about how broken it is, and suggests it might possibly be whole.”
- Lisa Harding, Bright Burning Things: A Novel (HarperVia, 2021): “To avoid losing Tommy, she checks herself into rehab. Harding doesn’t romanticize the bleak institution where Sonya spends 12 weeks in detox and recovery, imbuing it instead with the gravity of a space to land and heal.”
- Stephen Markley, The Deluge: A Novel (Simon & Schuster, 2023): “Confronts the Scale and Gravity of Climate Change”.
Poetry
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
[Robert Frost, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”.]
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Tommy Dorsey led a big band but his lead trombone, coupled with his soothing arrangements, infused his music with a sense of restfulness. “Dorsey perfected a ballad style on the trombone, noted for seamless legato phrases and purity of tone.” “His remarkably melodic trombone playing was the signature sound of his orchestra, but he successfully straddled the hot and sweet styles of swing with a mix of ballads and novelty songs.” “He was the ‘Sentimental Gentleman of Swing,’ a trombonist with perfect breath control, a pretty sound, and a melodic swinging style.” He was a main subject of a 1947 film, “The Fabulous Dorseys”, along with his brother Jimmy, a clarinetist. Here they are on the popular TV show “What’s My Line?” in 1955. Here is a link to Tommy Dorsey’s playlists.
Other artists:
- Much of Benny Carter’s later work, including the following albums: “Jazz Giant” (1957) (39’), “Swingin’ in the 20s” (1957) (46’), “My Kind of Trouble”(1988) (49’), “Elegy in Blue” (1994) (70’), “Wonderland” (1986) (39’) and “Additions to Further Definitions” (1966) (37’)
- The gloriously enjoyable music of Ernie Carson and the Castle Jazz Band: “At the Hooker’s Ball” (2017) (60’), “Pretty Little Lady from Beaumont, Texas” (2016) (53’), “One Beer” (with the Goose Hollow Gang) (1993), and “Hello Horn!” (Ernie with Rick Fay and Friends) (1990) (63’)
Compositions:
- Jean Sibelius, Symphony No. 6 in D minor, Op. 104 (1923) (approx. 28-31’), offers pause and spiritual refreshment “after the heroism of the fifth”. “Sibelius wrote that the work reminded him of “the scent of the first snow”. It could well be called a lyrical fantasy. Top recordings were conducted by Karajan in 1967, Berglund in 1986, Salonen, Vänskä in 2016 and Mäkelä in 2021.
- An old saying holds that if your occupation is your joy, then you never work a day in your life. Sibelius’ Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52 (1907) (approx. 28-36’), a “ deceptively simple piece of music”, is about the pleasure of making music. Top recorded performances are conducted by Kajanus in 1932, Barbirolli in 1970, Davis in 1977, Maazel in 1992, Jansons in 1996, Berglund in 1998, Vänskä in 2016, Martin in 2018, Mäkelä in 2021, and Rouvali in 2022.
- Alexander Borodin, Petite Suite (1885) (approx. 30’)
- Carl Friedrich Abel, 6 Sonatas for Viola da Gamba & Bass, WK 141-146 (ca. 1771) (approx. 60’), as on this album by Marco Casonato.
Albums:
- Steven Halpern, “Sleep Soundly” (2003) (70’) and “Sleep Soundly, Vol. 2” (2017) (73’)
- Max Richter, “Sleep” (2015) (664’)
- Joseph van Hassel, “As Before: Solo Percussion Music of David MacBride” (2021) (56’)
- Matthew Shipp, “Zero” (2018) (45’) (emptying the cup)
- George Colligan, “King’s Dream” (2022) (67’): “‘In this challenging era and complex world in which we live, we have to believe that good will and enlightenment will prevail over ignorance and hatred,’ Colligan writes in the album’s liner notes. ‘I don’t know whether music can make a difference, but I dedicate my album to those who believe in, as drummer Al Foster would say, ‘Peace, Love, and Jazz.’”
Here is a video presenting eight hours of simple relaxing music, unmarred by excessive New Age gimmickry (OK, there is that chirping bird and the bell). This is music to turn off your mind by. Don’t expect much forward movement, just relax.
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Paul Simon, “Was a Sunny Day” (lyrics)
- Christopher Cross, “Sailing” (lyrics)
- Franz Schubert (composer), “Der Winterabend” (The Winter Evening), D. 938 (1828) (lyrics)
Visual Arts
- Aleksandr Deyneka, Day Off (1949)
- Umberto Boccioni, The Laugh (1911)
- Claude Monet, Bathers at La Grenouillére (1869)
- Isaack van Ostade, Children Playing in a Barn (1639)
